Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Recap: Coulson Lives, and His Car Flies

Face it. You’re watching Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Maybe because you love Marvel movies. Maybe because you love Marvel comics. Maybe because you love Joss Whedon. Or maybe just because the narrative — Joss Whedon, finally returning to TV for a spinoff from his megahit superhero film The Avengers – insists that we watch. So we’re all in this together, from the pilot to that moment when everyone holds their breath to see if it gets a second-season renewal. (R.I.P., Firefly.)

Yet, for all of the stakes, the pilot episode of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. – directed by Whedon himself – starts off remarkably slow. Set in the time period shortly after the Avengers battle over New York, the episode has a few moments of action and some quippy, Whedon-esque dialog, but nothing that quite evokes the epic scale of the film.

Still, Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. feels intimately connected to the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has threaded through films like Iron Man and Thor. Most new TV shows have to cram a lot of exposition, interesting characters, and intrigue into their pilots to convince viewers to tune back in, but since S.H.I.E.L.D. already has Avengers and Iron Man movies to back up its backstory, it can just saunter in the door, say “Coulson lives” and we’re off and running.

The news that Agent Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg) has been resurrected after his untimely death in The Avengers — a mystery that will likely be explained over many subsequent episodes — couldn’t come at a better time. Because of the dramatic and highly-publicized alien invasion of New York that took place during The Avengers, Earth’s denizens are now very aware that both aliens and superheroes exist, and walk among them. That makes the work of S.H.I.E.L.D., an espionage agency that deals specifically with superhuman threats, not only far more public but more necessary than ever.

Coulson’s return is particularly important because as a mere human (albeit one with a flying car), he offers us a more street-level view into this world of superpowered heroes. At Comic-Con this summer, Gregg called Coulson — a man who’s been known to collect a few superhero trading cards himself — “an avatar for the fans.” He’s the one we relate to, so when he builds a team of super-agents, fans can actually can actually envision being a part of it. (Also, Gregg is fantastic, and S.H.I.E.L.D. could be all about him determining the best way to tint car windows at home and still be fantastic.)

Most of the pilot is devoted to introducing and recruiting the members of the team, which include Agent Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), an attractive, calculating agent and Skye (Chloe Bennet), an also attractive (this is television, after all) hacker. Skye has been investigating both S.H.I.E.L.D. and a mysterious young man (J. August Richards) who has gained super-human strength thanks to Extremis, the dangerous technology introduced in Iron Man 3. The technology has a tendency to both give people superpowers and make them explode, so he’s being pursued by S.H.I.E.L.D., because duh.

When Coulson isn’t flying around in his car Lola — yes, a flying car – or introducing S.H.I.E.L.D. members, the bulk of this first episode revolves around this single plot. And it resolves itself pretty tidily, because apparently the S.H.I.E.L.D. tech whizzes Fitz (Iain De Caestecker) and Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) can whip up an antidote for Extremis simply because Coulson bellows “Don’t ever tell me there’s no way!”

So, yeah, this one doesn’t start off with guns blazing, but it’s got enough self-aware wry jokes, pre-established context, and fun gizmos that it doesn’t have to. Superhero fans finally have their own NCIS and what we saw was good enough — at least for now. To borrow a line from the bajillion teasers that have been floating around prior to last night’s premiere, not all pilots have to be super.